Even though she though she was ready to come back in, Gabby Weber was forced to sit out the final stretch of Prairie Central’s Corn Belt Conference girls’ basketball game with U-High Thursday.

Although the Hawks have many talented players who can handle the ball, losing the three-year starter for the final part of the game hindered PC’s chances in a 63-59 loss to the Pioneers.

Weber was forced to leave the game after banging her head on the court. After a brief timeout, she popped up and raced to the bench ready to get back into the fray. She was not happy when told she had to sit.

Prairie Central had the lead but the game was close, as it had been most of the way to that point and beyond.

Without their senior leader, the Hawks ran into trouble with U-High’s pressure and man-to-man defense.

“We both like to run, we like to push the ball. It was a good matchup,” PC head coach Tom Garriott said. “They had trouble guarding us man, we had trouble guarding them man but we both stayed in it.”

U-High’s man-to-man was more effective with Weber on the bench. There was no big guard to break it for PC.

Still, the Hawks stayed after it, battling down to the wire. The problem was stopping freshman Chante Stonewall.

Stonewall finished with a game-high 19 points, 13 coming in the second half and most after U-High lost Destiny Ramsey to an injury. Six points came in the final 3:50 of the game as the Pioneers overtook Prairie Central for the final time.

“Basketball is about runs,” Garriott said. “You’re going to make runs, the other team is going to make runs, you just have to contain their runs as much as possible.”

The runs were plentiful in this game. U-High’s final surge was a 9-2 charge in the final four minutes. The Pioneers had another big run in the first half that made it appear as if the visitors were going to run away like their brother team did the game before.

A 13-2 run started the second period as U-High took a 27-16 lead in the first four minutes. It was during that span that Garriott burned three timeouts.

Something clicked for the Hawks, though, and it was Weber who got it started with a 10-footer. These were the first points of what became a 17-3 push to closeout the first half.

Page 2 of 2 - Jordyn Weber added a 3-pointer and a pair of free throws and freshman Kiana Coomber chipped in two free throws and a field goal as the Hawks took a 33-30 advantage into the break.

“We took the shots we wanted, we battled and never gave up,” Garriott said. “I saw a lot of good things, even though it was a loss.”

PC’s biggest lead of the night was six points and it happened three times, two of which were in the third period. The last being 41-35 after Cassie Somers buried a 3-pointer.

But in the end, it was too much U-High as the Pioneers held off the Hawks down the stretch.

Somers had 16 points to lead the Prairie Central (4-1) scoring. Laura Crane added 12 points and Coomber threw in 9. Emily Shiflett scored 7 points and was followed by Gabby Weber with 6 points and Jordyn Weber with 5.